BLACKSBURG – Following its second game of the season, Virginia Tech football met with the media for a postgame press conference Saturday.
Read below for some highlights of what was said.
Head coach Brent Pry
Opening statement:
"First, I want to thank everyone that had a hand with us playing this game today. There was a ton of adversity and a ton of tough decisions of finishing this thing and getting back out there. So, I appreciate everyone that was involved, which includes our police, all of our security, our operations and administration. There was so much going on behind the scenes to play that game. I thank everybody for that and the patience our players and coaches had. It was a long day for everybody. I want to thank the fans that came back out and got in those stands and cheered us on. I really appreciate that, as well."
On the offensive woes in the second half:
"Let me tell you, they [Purdue's defense] have a stout group. We knew that going into it. I think we hit one or two in the second half, but they were awful big. They have a nice looking front. We wanted to push it to the perimeter a bit more and maybe we should have done that more. But my hats off to those guys. They played a nice football game. That's a group that was in the Big Ten championship last year. There are some kids on that football team that know how to win. Some kids with experience and size. They got some good wins under their belts. Hats off to those guys. I thought Coach [Ryan] Walters did a great job. We got to be able to run the ball better and find ways to run the ball. If it can't be inside, we got to run it outside. We got to be a little bit more creative there."
Wide receiver Stephen Gosnell
On not putting up more points in the second half:
"We just didn't execute. I thought the energy was there. Everybody was locked in, but it's just little things. It comes down to that we just didn't execute. Everybody's got to do their 1/11th when things aren't working and it comes down to execution.
On what you do for a five-hour game delay:
"We kinda just sat around. We were waiting really just to see what was going to happen. We didn't know if we were going to play or not. Looking outside, pouring rain, everything's flooded. We had no idea that the field was being drained. I think it's hardest mentality to turn that switch on and off. To know you can't be juiced up right now, you have to tone it down until they tell you you're going to play. You have to pick it back up. Then it's a matter of you have to stay loose, you can't get tight. You have to stay mentality there. I thought our guys did a good job of that."
